Connecticut Christmas Movie Trail Celebrates the Value Of Local Holiday Films

By Joe O’Leary

November 20 @ 9:00 am

Just in time for the holiday season, the state Office of Tourism has released the first-ever Christmas Movie Trail, designed to draw holiday visitors to Connecticut to tour the places where their favorite comfort movies were filmed.

The trail, announced in a Tuesday press release from Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration, includes 22 stops across the state and features locations related to films released by companies including Netflix, Universal, Hallmark, Lifetime and BET.

The curated map serves as a celebration of Connecticut’s warm inns, idyllic winter landscapes and iconic beauty while drawing attention to the state’s film and media industry.

The trail covers locations across the state where films like “One Royal Holiday,” “Soul Santa” and “Holiday In Harlem” were filmed, sometimes with cities like Hartford filling in for other big cities like New York City. Each featured film, like “Ghosts of Christmas Always,” which filmed in Hartford locations including the Cornerstone deli on Main Street, has several recommended local landmarks for visitors to visit.

Visitors wanting to visit the locales of “Sugar Plum Twist,” a 2021 film shot in New London, East
Hampton and Haddam, among other locations, can visit Downtown New London, the Garde Arts Center and Norwich Town Hall. Meanwhile fans of “Next Stop, Christmas,” which was filmed in Essex, Old Saybrook and Deep River, can visit the Essex Steam Train or local restaurants while they travel the trail.

Some travelers may not know just how many holiday films were shot in Connecticut, either. Fans of Hallmark films may be interested to learn Melissa Joan Hart has shot several movies in Fairfield County, Middletown and Mystic, while names like Denise Richards, Kelsey Grammer, Chevy Chase and Christopher Lloyd have also joined the casts of local holiday movies in recent years.

The Christmas Movie Trail isn’t just a new style of tourism outreach, intended to support fans of any number of different holiday movies; it’s meant to highlight the many resources that make Connecticut great, including its small towns, inns and restaurants and unique attractions that come to life every winter.

The initiative is also drawing attention to Connecticut’s film industry, which has delivered more than $58 million to the state’s economy in recent years and spurred the creation of more than 2,000 jobs. Millions have been spent on lodging, foodservice and vehicle rentals through holiday filming, an important infusion of funds throughout the state supporting businesses from Fairfield to Windham Counties.

To read more about the Christmas Movie Trail, click here.